THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I want to talk this morning about a
very real threat to our judicial system. For more than 220 years our
nation has remained young and strong by meeting new challenges in ways
that renew our oldest values. Throughout our history our judiciary
has given life and meaning to those values by upholding the laws and
defending the rights they reflect, without regard for politics or
political party.

That is the legacy of the judicial system our founders established,
a legacy we recalled this Thursday on the 40th anniversary of the
court-ordered desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

But in the past 18 months this vital partnership has broken down as
the Senate has refused to act on nomination after nomination. And in
federal courthouses across America, almost 100 judges' benches are
empty. In 1996, the Senate confirmed just 17 judges -- that's the
lowest election-year total in over 40 years.

This year I've already sent 70 nominations to Congress, but so far
they've acted on less than 20. The result is a vacancy crisis in our
courts that Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist warned could
undermine our courts' ability to fairly administer justice.

Meanwhile, our courts are clogged with a rising number of cases. An
unprecedented number of civil cases are stalled, affecting the lives
of tens of thousands of Americans -- from the family seeking life
insurance proceeds, to the senior citizen trying to collect Social
Security benefits, to the small business protecting its right to
compete. In our criminal courts nearly 16,000 cases are caught in
limbo, while criminals on bail await punishment and victims await
justice. Our sitting judges are overloaded and overworked, and our
justice system is strained to the breaking point.

The Senate's failure to act on my nominations, or even to give
many of my nominees a hearing, represents the worst of partisan
politics. Under the pretense of preventing so-called judicial
activism, they've taken aim at the very independence our founders
sought to protect. The congressional leadership has actually
threatened sitting judges with impeachment, merely because it
disagrees with their judicial opinions. Under this politically
motivated scrutiny, under ever-mounting caseloads, our judges must
struggle to enforce the laws Congress passes and to do justice for
us all.

We can't let partisan politics shut down our courts and gut our
judicial system. I've worked hard to avoid that. And the people I've
nominated for judgeships and had confirmed have had the highest rating
of well qualified from the American Bar Association of any President
since these ratings have been kept.

So today I call upon the Senate to fulfill its constitutional
duty to fill these vacancies. The intimidation, the delay, the shrill
voices must stop so the unbroken legacy of our strong, independent
judiciary can continue for generations to come. This age demands that
we work together in bipartisan fashion -- and the American people
deserve no less, especially when it comes to enforcing their rights,
enforcing the law, and protecting the Constitution.